“Dealing With Rejection”


BIBLE READING: Luke 4


                As Luke records Jesus beginning His ministry, he takes him back to His home town to make himself known to his people.  You can imagine the people oohing and ahhing as they saw the once little boy Jesus stand up to read in the synagogue now a grown man. It hasn’t been that long ago that they watched His mother hold him as a child, they must have thought.  As they carefully and nostalgically watched Jesus find His place within the scroll, there may have been a collective sigh as to how fast time had flown by, knowing the child is now a man.  However, that sigh was quickly turned into a gasp as Jesus has now (in their minds) done the unthinkable.  After completing the reading Jesus had now used this opportunity to reveal Himself as the Messiah to his hometown.  Of course, this did not go very well.  The once sentimental worshippers had now turned into an angry mob ready to kill Jesus.  Try to imagine what it must have been like for Jesus emotionally.  I understand that He was fully aware of what He was called to do, even to the point of the cross.  I also realize that He is also fully aware that in the end He gains the victory defeating the Devil and death.  However, I am also aware that Jesus was fully human as well as divine.  It must have been emotionally draining for Him to go through what He did.  It must have been gut wrenching for Him to endure rejection from the one place He should have felt safe. Yet from this story and others, we see that not only His hometown did not believe in Him, neither did His own family.  It should be a comforting thought for us today to know that Jesus dealt with more rejection than we could ever dream of having to endure.  Nevertheless, He tolerated it all so that we might be able to live in a new town, one where there will be no rejection, no tears and no death.  We must never allow ourselves to forget that He went through it long before we did.


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